The Giver - Lois Lowry
Given his lifetime assignment at the Ceremony of Twelve, Jonas becomes the receiver of memories shared by only one other in his community and discovers the terrible truth about the society in which he lives.
The Pinballs - Betsy Byars
Three lonely foster children learn to care about themselves and each other.
The Bumble Bee Flies Anyway - by Robert Cormier
Sixteen-year-old Barney is amnesic but, as a voluntary patient, he knows he is different from terminally ill patients. His involvement with the bitter, slowly dying Mazzo brings Barney hope, pain, and a moment of heroic glory.
Pictures of Hollis Woods - Patricia Giff
A troublesome twelve-year-old orphan, staying with an elderly artist who needs her, remembers the only other time she was happy in a foster home, with a family that truly seemed to care about her.
One Year in Coal Harbor - Polly Horvath
In a small fishing village in British Columbia, twelve-year-old Primrose tries to be a matchmaker for her Uncle Jack, befriends Ked, a new foster child, tries to decide if she is willing to go to jail for her convictions, and together with Ked, publishes a cook book to raise money for the Fisherman's Aid. Includes recipes.
Make Lemonade - Virginia Euwer Wolff
Fourteen-year-old LaVaughn, trying to earn the money for college, takes a job caring for the two children of Jolly, a single teenage mom, and must find the courage to make the right decision for all of them after Jolly is fired.
Out of My Mind by Sharon M. Draper
Melody is not like most people. She cannot walk or talk, but she has a photographic memory; she can remember every detail of everything she has ever experienced. She is smarter than most of the adults who try to diagnose her and smarter than her classmates in her integrated classroom—the very same classmates who dismiss her as mentally challenged, because she cannot tell them otherwise. But Melody refuses to be defined by cerebral palsy. And she’s determined to let everyone know it…somehow.
Rules by Cynthia Lord
Frustrated at life with an autistic brother, twelve-year-old Catherine longs for a normal existence but her world is further complicated by a friendship with an young paraplegic.
The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan
Suspicious of sixteen-year-old Marnie, a newcomer to their village, the residents accuse her of witchcraft when she discovers that the village madman is not crazy but deaf and she begins to communicate with him through hand gestures.
Freak the Mighty - by Rodman Philbrick
At the beginning of eighth grade, learning-disabled Max and his new friend, Freak whose birth defect has affected his body but not his brilliant mind, find that when they combine forces, they make a powerful team.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man's struggle for justice—but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.
Boy 21 - Matthew Quick
Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school's varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences.
The Misfits - James Howe
Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.
In My Hands : Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer - by Irene Gut Opdyke
Recounts the experiences of the author who, as a young Polish girl, hid and saved Jews during the Holocaust.
